The Top 10 Most Controversial Parents Of Celebrities

Yesterday it was announced that 29-year-old[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”] Beyonce[/lastfm] would no longer be managed by her father, Mathew Knowles. While their relationship wasn’t as tumultuous as other paparazzi-cursed parent/child relationships, Mathew had been managing Beyonce’s career since she was in a pre-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Destiny’s Child [/lastfm]girl group. Some viewed it as a little overbearing and puzzling for Beyonce’s father to have full-reign over the diva’s multi-million dollar career. Others say that it’s admirable the Knowles kept it all in the family–mother Tina Knowles runs Beyonce’s House of Dereon clothing line.

That made us think about other potential overbearing, highly publicized, or questionable parenting. Click through our list of the Top 10 Most Controversial Parents of Celebrities.

“It took awhile for me and my dad to have an understanding. When I turned 18 and started handling my business more, he went into shock. And we had our issues. I’d say “No” to something, and he’d book it anyway.”

‘Then I’d have to do it because I’d look bad [if I didn’t]. We would fight sometimes, and it took about two years, to when I was 20, for him to realise, “Oh, she is an adult now, and if she doesn’t wanna do something, I can’t make her do it.”‘

Do you think Beyonce can handle her career without her father or is he “Irreplaceable?”

9. Willow Smith & Her Parents

Photo by Chris Lopez//Getty Images

10-year-old Willow Smith is undoubtedly a superstar in the making and shares many of the attributes of her famous father and mother–Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith.

Ever since Willow broke onto the scene with her infectious tune “Whip My Hair,” people have wondered what kind of parent could let their child have such a demanding career in music at so early an age.

We think Willow Smith sounds like a pretty grounded little girl though. In a quote from Hollybaby, Willow said she learned her skills from her parents:

“Mommy and Daddy inspired me to be a performer. I get my flow from Daddy, my singing ability from Mommy, and the camera stuff from both. That’s just what happens when you hang out with the Smiths!”

Do you think Jade & Will have let Willow grow up too fast for her “career” or is this all part of being a “21st Century Girl?”

8. Miley Cyrus & Her Dad

Photo by Theo Wargo//Getty Images

Miley might just be being “Miley,” but we’ve watched the Hannah Montana star grow up and do overly adult things at a super young age. Her famous country singer father, Billy Ray Cyrus, doesn’t seem like a bad father. He just seems like he is too permissive.

Billy Ray even lamented recently to Access Hollywood about how Miley was growing up way too fast:

“Every time something happened in Miley’s career, every time the train went off the track, if you will – Vanity Fair, pole-dancing, whatever scandal it was – her people, or as they say in today’s news, her handlers, every time they’d put me… ‘Somebody’s shooting at Miley! Put the old man up there!’ Well, I took it, because I’m her daddy, and that’s what daddies do. ‘Okay, nail me to the cross, I’ll take it,'” he continued. “All those people around, they used me every time. It became so obvious that, man, no matter what happens, they’re going to put you up there and let you take the bullet.”

“I’ll tell you right now – the damn show destroyed my family,” he told the mag. “I should have been a better parent. I should have said, ‘Enough is enough – it’s getting dangerous and somebody’s going to get hurt.’ I should have, but I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t know the ball was out of bounds until it was way up in the stands somewhere.”

Does Billy Ray let his daughter get away with too much “Party In The USA?”

7. Britney Spears & Her Mom

Photo by Pascal Le Segretain//Getty Images

Britney Spears and her mom have had many ups-and-downs. That is one of the inevitable curses of being a stage mom. But many people were publicly adamant that Lynne Spears exploited her daughter–especially in her childhood and her teens. Like all “good” parents, Lynne wrote a book about her daughter’s ordeals called Through The Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World.

“When [Britney’s] life was such a success, what did she need me for? And when things took a turn for the worse, I was out, because other people were closer to her, and with her day and night. Being a mother, you can’t help but have regrets about what you did and didn’t do for your kids, and I’m not different.”

“I would over-compensate and I tried to make things seem happier when my kids were growing up, because I was aware of the deficit. Maybe I didn’t give her the skills to handle the hard times. Maybe I sheltered her too much from the realities, and sometimes that’s not a good thing.”

Do you think Britney Spears’ relationship with her mom is “Toxic?”

6. Jennifer Aniston & Her Mom

Photo by Andreas Rentz//Getty Images

While Jennifer Aniston’s mom apparently helped her get into show business, she also “forced” her to get a nose job and talked about Jennifer’s life on both a television show and in a book called From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir. Jennifer stopped talking to mother for about a decade.

Jennifer talked to Vanity Fair about the toxic relationship in 2005: “I don’t know if I would have known how beautiful [my mom] was if she wasn’t always pointing out how unbeautiful I was. I’m still trying to understand those years of my life. As an adult, I can’t blame my parents anymore.”

5. Jessica Simpson & Her Dad

Photo by Jammie McCarthy//Getty Images

Poor Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. They got the father they called “Papa Joe” that would forever be known to the public as tactless and, well, a total creep. He manged their careers, both musically and creating their failed reality television shows and he apparently managed their love lives.

Most notably, Papa Joe will be remembered for talking about his daughter’s breasts:

“Jessica never tries to be sexy. She just is sexy. If you put her in a T-shirt or you put her in a bustier, she’s sexy in both. She’s got double Ds! You can’t cover those suckers up!”

Do you think Jessica Simpson’s relationship with her father was too much of “A Public Affair?

4. Angelina Jolie & Her Dad

Photo by Jason Merritt//Getty Images

We aren’t sure how many children Angelina Jolie has now, but the charitable Ms. Jolie may be compensating somehow for a horrible childhood by positively contributing to her adopted children’s lives. Her relationship with her father, Jon Voight, has always been strained, but especially so after he told the world she had “serious mental problems” on a television show.

“I find it very heartbreaking that my children want to paint a bad guy portrait of me. I feel it comes from their inability to let go of years of programmed anger from their mother, who understandably felt quite hurt when we divorced.”

3. Drew Barrymore & Her Mom

Photo by Scott Kirkland//Getty Images

The effervescent, always-smiling Drew Barrymore wasn’t always calm, cool, and collected. A break-out child star, Barrymore, found her way to drugs and alcohol as a very young child with her model-mother instigating her behavior and not controlling it.

Drew Barrymore has been quoted as saying:

“My mother was more like a friend than a real mom to me. She’d take me out to clubs, and I wound up feeling like part of this very unreal kind of world, although that was the only world I ever knew growing up.”

2. Lindsay Lohan & Her Parents

Photo by Pool//Getty Images

Now that Lindsay Lohan is an adult and is perpetually in the media for massive mess-ups like DUI, theft, or her million stints in rehab, it’s hard to feel sorry for her or remember that she was a beautiful child star with a ton of family problems.

Her mother, Dina Lohan, continues to be in denial about her role in Lindsay’s messy life–which is probably why Lindsay can’t heal properly:

“As a parent, you have to let them go a little bit. When [Lindsay] went out to Los Angeles when she was 19, I had to let her live and fall and fail and survive. Without failure, there’s no success.”

Lohan even wrote a song about her dad called “Confessions Of A Broken Heart.”

1. Michael Jackson & His Dad

Photo by Tim Whitby//Getty Images

If you’ve been alive longer than twenty years and pay attention to major music media, you probably know all about the apparently abusive relationship between Michael Jackson and his father Joe Jackson.

There is lots of reports out there, but Joe Jackson is quoted as saying in the Daily Mail: “I whipped him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick.”

People have different ideas of corporal punishment with children, but we know that Michael has himself expressed how harshly he felt affected by his father.

Did Michael Jackson ever see his father’s reflection in himself while he looked at the “Man In The Mirror?”

What do you think is good or bad parenting? Do you celebrities lives should be so publicly judged or do you think the media should back away and leave families alone? Let us know in the comments!